right

[click image]

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Some "prank"....

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love, 99
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see, i don't think china is okay with unifying the koreas

[click image]

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I just think they were saying that to our diplomats to fend off pressure to do anything about North Korea, while keeping us relaxed about our relations. Now we're down doing war games with Japan. That can't be making them very happy either.

China's foreign ministry has said that military threats could not resolve continuing tensions on the Korean peninsula.

The statement by Jiang Yu, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, comes after Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticised China on Thursday for enabling its ally North Korea's "reckless behaviour".

Jiang Yu told news conference that she questioned what Mullen had done for "peace and stability in the region," calling his remarks on China's support for North Korea an "accusation".

I've heard we're trying to get it together to have Japan and South Korea coördinate activities. I'm very skeptical about this, but Farrell was just mentioning about the "tremendous change" taking place in Japan over the past year and a half, my insights into their thing against Korea are antiquated, so maybe there's less resistance to that than I thought at first, but, basically, it's pretty clear that the United States—I'm trying to break my habit of referring to that entity as "we" or "us" or "our" because whatever it is, it ain't that!—is being plenty pushy with our bankster-run military.

There were some squawks from certain quadrants a few weeks ago that this, no kidding, is all headed directly toward WWIII, but they seem to have piped down now that they have the accounting from the Fed to flip over and the whole world has Assange to flip over. Genghis Ponzi Yoo, I hear, is off on a campaign to stump for his capitulation on taxes and large numbers of people are dissing him hard at last. Point of bringing this up is simply to point out, once again, in case you need to hear it again:

HE'S NOT IN CHARGE. EXPERT FASCISTS ARE.

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Just as an aside, I think the value of seeing this list outweighs by far any danger in the BOGUS GWOT.

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love, 99
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if at first you don't succeed, drum louder

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Sheesh.

I'm pretty sure China ain't letting North Korea make another move... no matter WHAT the provocation because if they force China to have to take South Korea, there ain't gonna be no North Korea left standing... or South. Fwoosh, seventy-five million people vapor. Immediately. I am living testimony that things ain't the same as they were in 1953... OR in 2009.*

Nope. Far better they keep choking us to death financially than let us start WWIII.

Everybody in their right mind knows that we might start it, but we aren't going to finish it. Nobody prosecuting this action intends any such a thing as a country, a people, coming out on top. At best, the Chinese and the Russians could go on to crow about stopping the Great American Menace, get fat and sing about killing fascists....**

* Al Jazeera, and others, are making much of this cable, implying it actually means China is happy to let Korea reunify, and that would seem lucid, on its face, but most Westerners have no idea that nothing about China, or Asia for that matter, should be taken at face value. They are never direct when indirect works so much better. And you should worry when they effusively praise your virtues. North Korea staying a focus for U.S. troops stationed in South Korea suits China extremely well. They won't give that up easily. Maybe they would assess any possible advantage to letting it go in the short term if they are assured we cannot sustain any menace there, but, well, I do not think they are in a mood to put up with our perfidies much longer. There's nothing left to gain from it.

** I could be completely naive and China's gangsters are as anxious to shave a few billion off the global population as our gangsters are, but... well, I don't think they want to do it that way. It appears to me they prefer birth control to wholesale slaughter. Damn odd how those totalitarians end up being more humane than us democrats, ain't it?

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Oh. Well. Now. THIS IS PSYCHEDELIC. The chances of "a strong ROK-Japan relationship" ever developing are NIL. Nothing in all Japan is reviled more thoroughly than a Korean. Legendary for their racism, in general, NONE of it is as severe as it is toward Koreans. Even someone unfortunate enough to be half-Korean and never having set foot in either Korea—even in a Zen monastery, where things like racism are outright NOT DONE—catches it mercilessly from the Japanese. OMG!

No wonder our diplomats are such idiots! If they're getting this kind of treatment day-in and day-out, they cannot help but stay completely out of touch with reality.

I mean, no, really, this business about never being direct or genuine—at least not with mere acquaintances or in political situations—and I even suspect half the time not really with each other either—has driven me nuts from people all my life. Asians and Middle Easterners find me entertaining as hell. I hate it about them, but I know it comes from millennia of cultural conditioning and so have had to learn to endure it where I don't have the ability to get in there and sock them in the teeth over it. My decades of studying the ancients has helped immeasurably, but, dudes, please, believe me when I tell you, This Is Psychedelic.

Babes in the woods, our diplomats to the Chinese.

They won't ever know what hit them.

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It occurs to me, unbelievable as it might seem, that while I know about the SCO, never invited and not allowed even to audit meetings, maybe our diplomats don't know about it... or didn't when these cables flew out of their offices.

Maybe now that Russia and China aren't using the dollar on each other anymore they're starting to get the picture.

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HUNNERTS OF WIKILEAKS MIRRORS....

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love, 99
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we don't love each other enough

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This is making me so sick:

With North Korea promising retaliation of its own, the US looks poised to further escalate the tensions in the region with the addition of an aircraft carrier. The US retains some 28,000 troops along the border between the two nations and President Obama has promised to cooperate in whatever retaliation South Korean President Lee Myung-bak sees fit.

Did anyone ever check to see if he was any good at being a community organizer?

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And this is just flat out humiliating. Maybe I'm completely deluded, but I feel sure that our entire legislative branch would have been lined up and shot for this sort of thing a hunnert years ago....

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Don't go blathering nothing about Hillary going to be any better than Bozo the Laureate either.

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HUNNERTS OF WIKILEAKS MIRRORS....

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love, 99
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not unrelated

[click image]

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The piece at the image link was posted immediately after THIS ONE... and I'm telling you, they are not unrelated. I don't understand why people are so willing to just sit back and let our "leaders" get us into this shit. I just don't. Maybe just too many of us too inhibited to don the tinfoil suits to combat the pacification waves, but this is seriously not funny for us, man. It isn't like WWII, when nobody had weapons capable of inflicting damage here, but the sheep don't seem to be getting that idea.

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Tangential, but also probably not unrelated:

Japan spots Chinese vessels near disputed islands: report
2 hrs 30 mins ago

TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japanese coast guard has spotted two Chinese vessels attempting on Sunday to enter waters near islands in the East China Sea that are disputed by the two countries, Kyodo News reported.

Two Chinese fishing patrol ships were sighted around 7:45 a.m. on Sunday (6:45 p.m. EST on Saturday) repeatedly trying to enter waters 44 kilometers off a group of islands known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, Kyodo reported, citing the Japanese coast guard.

Relations between Asia's two biggest economies soured in September after Japan detained a Chinese skipper whose fishing boat collided with Japanese patrol vessels off the disputed islands, which are near potentially rich maritime gas reserves. He was later released.

Think about kissing someone or something.

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love, 99
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we better be kidding

[click image]

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Because they're not.

Expats recalled as North Korea prepares for war
By Shaun Walker in Moscow
Saturday, 27 November 2010

A mass exodus of North Korean workers from the Far East of Russia is under way, according to reports coming out of the region. As the two Koreas edged towards the brink of war this week, it appears that the workers in Russia have been called back to aid potential military operations.

Vladnews agency, based in Vladivostok, reported that North Korean workers had left the town of Nakhodka en masse shortly after the escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula earlier this week. "Traders have left the kiosks and markets, workers have abandoned building sites, and North Korean secret service employees working in the region have joined them and left," the agency reported.

Russia's migration service said that there were over 20,000 North Koreans in Russia at the beginning of 2010, of which the vast majority worked in construction. The workers are usually chaperoned by agents from Kim Jong-il's security services and have little contact with the world around them. Defectors have suggested that the labourers work 13-hour days and that most of their pay is sent back to the government in Pyongyang. Hundreds of workers have fled the harsh conditions and live in hiding in Russia, constantly in fear of being deported back to North Korea.

"North Korea's government sends thousands of its citizens to Russia to earn money, most of which is funnelled through government accounts," says Simon Ostrovsky, a journalist who discovered secret North Korean logging camps in the northern Siberian taiga. "Workers are often sent to remote locations for years at a time to work long hours and get as little as three days off per year." Now it appears that some kind of centralised order has been given for the workers to return home.

Russia's Pacific port of Vladivostok is thousands of miles and seven time zones from Moscow, but only around 100 miles from the country's heavily controlled border with North Korea. In 1996, a diplomat from the South Korean consulate in the city was murdered with a poisoned pencil, in what was widely believed to be a hit carried out by the North's secret agents. There are even two North Korean restaurants in the city. It is not known how many of the workers in other Russian towns have been called back to their homeland this week, or whether the exodus is permanent or temporary.

I am appalled and ashamed. I mean, there's no doubt in my mind we started this.

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love, 99
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eyebrows sprouting

[click image, video, three and a half hours]

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A rational man will say
electing mass murderers
to commission professional murderers
to commit genocide in our name
does not mean that we are innocent.

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You probably think you're going nuts by now.

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And you've probably seen THIS and THIS everywhere already, but, well, good job all around.

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I could not face pitching a hissy about the bullcrap on the AP and numerous groupthink outlets across the tubes "reporting" how docile everyone was at the airports yesterday, and still can't. But would like you to see at least the counter-propaganda so you don't lose heart from that filthy blather.

TSA turns off naked body scanners to avoid opt-out day protests
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
24 November 2010

(NaturalNews) — Anticipating a nationwide grassroots surge of protests against naked body scanners and aggressive pat-downs, the TSA simply turned off its naked body scanners on Wednesday and let air travelers walk right through security checkpoints without being X-rayed or molested.

All across the country, air travelers are reporting that the TSA simply deactivated the naked body scanners and let people go right through without a scan. "Backscatter scanners are off. No scan. No patdown." reported a traveler from the Seattle airport. "Backscatter machines aren't being used at LAX," reported another traveler. "They're all roped off."

Much the same story is being reported all across the country.

The TSA is desperate to avoid protests

Shutting down the "National Opt-Out Day" by turning off the machines is the only logical move for the TSA, of course: The agency needed a way to defuse the growing grassroots resistance to its criminal violations of Americans' Fourth Amendment rights. So instead of facing what was sure to be widespread protest, the agency simply decided to turn off the machines for a day.

This action tells us all sorts of fascinating things about the TSA and its fabricated security excuses. Perhaps most importantly, it proves that the naked body scanners are not needed for air travel security in the first place. When it wants to, the TSA can just turn the machines off and resort to baggage X-rays and metal detectors. That's worked for years, and it apparently worked today, too.

And yet, up until today, the TSA has insisted that the naked body scanners are absolutely essential to detecting hidden bombs, and that "travelers won't be safe" unless they use the naked body scanners. So all of a sudden today it's okay for the TSA to put air travelers at risk of being blown up?

The TSA can't have it both ways. Either the naked body scanners are vital for air security and they need to be running 24/7 to keep everybody safe, or they're just another security con game being played out for the financial benefit of Chertoff and others who profit from the sale of such machines.

How can the TSA — with a straight face — say that naked body scanners are vital for air security but not on the busiest air travel day of the year?

As you can see, there are some serious holes in the TSA's mythology, and interestingly, this National Opt-Out Day indirectly exposed them by getting the TSA to turn off the naked body scanners. This is effectively an admission that they aren't important to air security.

Trying to avoid any challenge to its power

This action by the TSA also shows that the TSA is desperately trying to avoid being publicly embarrassed by the national-opt-out day protests. Lots of local and national news film crews were out at the airports today, hoping to catch something interesting on camera. But by turning off the naked body scanners, the TSA was able to stage a "calm looking" day at the airport.

As soon as the TV cameras leave, however, they can turn those machines right back on and start molesting people once again. This is classic behavior of police state tyrants: They present a calm, professional image to the media, but once the cameras leave, all of a sudden their hands are back down in your pants.

I predict the TSA will have the machines turned right back on by Friday, and more reports of sexual molestation and inappropriate pat-downs will continue to emerge.

Many people just skipped the airports altogether

The other big travel news today was that lots of travelers decided to simply skip the airports altogether. NaturalNews received emails from several travelers who described major U.S. airports as "nearly empty."

Meanwhile, traffic was terrible on the freeways. The Massachusetts Turnpike played host to a 30-mile traffic jam today.

A new Zogby poll indicates that 43% of the American public will seek alternatives to flying due to the TSA's aggressive pat-downs and naked body scanners. That's going to add up to a huge financial hit for the air travel industry in the months ahead. The TSA could end up destroying much of the air travel industry altogether!

Learn more about freedom, security, American history and the Bill of Rights

For a full discussion of the issues that really matter here, check out my new commentary audio/video about the Don't Touch My Junk song. The first 13 minutes or so are about the song itself. After that, it's mostly a discussion about freedom and the Bill of Rights. You can watch that video commentary for free HERE.

Thank you to all who participated in the National Opt Out Day. In getting the TSA to turn off its naked body scanners, we exposed the TSA's "big lie" about air travel safety.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving and travel safely, no matter what method of transportation you choose.

I even bothered to strip out all the visual impediments and bogus links for your convenience and serenity....

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For the stout-hearted, Peter Dale Scott holds forth at length on continuity of government and the Constitution... gobble, gobble....

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NO SHIT SHERLOCK....

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FIRE THEM ALL NOW....

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ONE OF THESE STINK BOMBS HAS GOTTA BRING 'EM DOWN....

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YA THINK...?

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HUNNERTS OF WIKILEAKS MIRRORS....

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love, 99
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can't make this stuff up

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The Inimitable Kims... new runaway hit reality tv show....

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love, 99
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gordon duff spills his guts

[click image, audio, hour and fifteen minutes, mp3 here]

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Peter B. Collins interviews Gordon Duff of Veteran's Today. I never realized Duff was this heavily connected, thought he was a little crazy about the Israeli thing, however right on he usually is on the subject. You better listen to this. You better listen to this. I'm sorry, but you better listen to this.

Duff tells us in this interview that he received this image of the original 9/11 hit on the Pentagon from the Canadian military. ===>

When I first saw the hole, it was a lot larger, but still MUCH smaller than an airliner impact could possibly be, but I didn't see it until a few minutes after it was first reported on tv, and then a few minutes later, of course, the roof caved in. I did hear the reporter saying the hole was much too small for an airliner and that there was no debris that could be attributed to one. I can't verify this image is of the Pentagon. The windows look wrong. The firefighter looks wrong.

Anyway, I think you better listen to this.

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UPDATE:

Turns out the image was from damage to an inner ring, not the outside of the building. And there are numerous sources for this image all over the tubes. So I have to listen again to hear what Duff is claiming, but this wasn't that hard to trace down. Still, it's ridiculous. There is NOTHING LIKE crashed airliner debris in this image. Bubkes. No airliner, no airplane, hit the Pentagon. Period.

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a hero

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I know one thing for sure:

Venezuela threatens oil cut to US
SUNDAY, JULY 25, 2010 | 23:51 MECCA TIME, 20:51 GMT

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president, has threatened to cut off oil exports to the United States if US-allied Colombia launches a military attack against his country.

"If there was any armed aggression against Venezuela from Colombian territory or from anywhere else, promoted by the Yankee empire, we would suspend oil shipments to the United States even if we have to eat stones here," Chavez said on Sunday.

He added that he had cancelled a trip to Cuba because he had intelligence revealing that "the possibility of an armed aggression against Venezuelan territory from Colombia" was higher than it has been "in 100 years".

Chavez, a leftist and vocal critic of the United States, broke off diplomatic relations with Colombia last week over claims by the outgoing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, a close US ally, that his country harbours Colombian rebels.

'Bogus show'

Uribe had said that top commanders of the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, have taken refuge in Venezuela and were launching attacks against Colombian troops.

The Colombian government had presented photos, videos and maps of what it said were Colombian rebel camps inside Venezuela to the Organisation of American States.

Chavez has dismissed the accusations as a bogus show intended to smear his government and has said that Uribe could be trying to lay the groundwork for an armed conflict with Venezuela.

The Colombian government denies seeking a conflict and says it went to OAS with its evidence about the rebels last week because Chavez's government had not taken steps to address the situation.

The United States threw its support behind its key ally Colombia, calling Chavez's decision to sever diplomatic relations and put border troops on alert "a petulant response" to Bogota's accusations.

You have to be the stupidest or the most courageous person around to be the president of any Latin American country. I'm going with dirt stupid for Uribe and most courageous for Chávez... a damn hero. Too bad we have one of the evil step-sisters posing as Cinderella for ours.

This does not bode well. It might be our next excuse for not attacking Iran. I don't care about the military drills in Korea. We're amassing ships in Costa Rica. They can be through the Panama Canal and on top of Venezuela in a heartbeat.

The Chinese have openly let it be known they see through us, and too many pinheads think war is the only thing that reverses the financial wreckage they purposefully wrecked. It KILLS millions and it makes TRILLIONS for trillionaires.

So. Wake up.

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propaganda tangling badly

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Maybe the Russians are trying to make something politically convenient out of this, or maybe al Jazeera's trying to keep this from getting out of hand too quickly, or maybe cargo flights just regularly have so many conflicting nationalities in flight manifests and crews and destinations....
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aaaaaaaaaahahahaha!

[click image]

the politics of contraband

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Sorry, guys, but you just SO have to ask why in the hell Obama is keeping right on with *'s bullshit "Axis of Evil" thing, and what on earth would Iran be doing ordering all this crap from North Korea when they totally have the capability to manufacture it themselves and get it from Russia anyway... and when it is really only people like black ops and "terrorist" groups with any use for these munitions from somebody not supposed to be selling them....

UAE 'seizes N Korea arms shipment'
SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2009
11:01 MECCA TIME, 08:01 GMT

The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo of North Korean weapons being shipped to Iran, which would have violated a UN embargo on arms exports from the communist state, Western diplomats say.

The UAE reported the incident, which occurred two weeks ago, to the Security Council sanctions committee on North Korea, diplomats said on Friday.

The committee sent letters to Tehran and Pyongyang on August 25 informing them of the seizure and demanding a response within 15 days.

The weapons seized on August 14 included rocket launchers, detonators, munitions and ammunition for rocket-propelled grenades, it said.

The ship, called the ANL-Australia, was Australian-owned and flying a Bahamas flag.

"Based on past experience ... we don't expect a very detailed response," one of the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.

'Sanctions violation'

The diplomats said the Australian firm whose ship was seized is controlled by a French conglomerate and the actual export was arranged by the Shanghai office of an Italian company.

The diplomats did not name any of the firms involved.

"The cargo was deceptively labelled," said a diplomat "The cargo manifest said that the ship contained oil boring machines. But then you opened it up and you found these arms."

The UAE mission to the UN declined comment on the case.

Jim Walsh, an international security expert with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's security studies programme, said the UAE's move was unusual given its ties with Iran.

"They have very close economic relations and there a large number of Iranian expats who live in the UAE," he told Al Jazeera from Boston.

"Its unusual because it puts the spotlight on the Iran-UAE relationship in a way we never seen before and it has implications with North Korea when it seems to be on some kind of peace offensive.

"It [also] asks all sorts of questions about why Iran would be buying hot goods from North Korea when everyone is watching what North Korea does."

'Significant incident'

Diplomats said both North Korea and Iran appeared to be in breach of Security Council resolution 1874, which banned all arms exports from North Korea and authorised states to search suspicious ships and seize and destroy banned items.

The resolution was imposed after North Korea's second nuclear test in May.

Balbina Hwang, a former state department adviser for Asia, told Al Jazeera that the seizure was significant because it was the first incident since the UN resolution within the Middle East region.

"First, I think that it's a very important indication that countries within the Middle East are willing to support the UN and the international community regarding an issue that some have tried to make as regional issue, in other words, the North Korea nuclear issue, so this is a very important step in enforcing international agreements and sanctions," Hwang said.

"As soon as UN resolution 1874 was announced, North Korea immediately reacted belligerently by stating that they would not accept these sanctions and any future effort to enforce these sanctions by the international community would have taken by North Korea as an act of war.

"That was an extremely aggressive reaction from them and one would expect that Iran would react strongly if there were reports that portions of goods destined for Iran were seized and yet we have not heard any negative reaction publicly from either one of these governments."

Important success

The Security Council imposed sanctions on Pyongyang after its first test in October 2006, but the measures were never enforced, mainly because China showed no interest in seeing them implemented.

Diplomats said the UAE seizure, which was done on the basis of the country's own intelligence reports, was an important success for the beefed-up North Korean sanctions regime and would hopefully deter further attempts at skirting sanctions.

Tehran has also been punished with three rounds of UN sanctions for its nuclear programme, which Western powers fear is aimed at producing atomic weapons.

Iran says it has a peaceful atomic programme that will generate electricity, not bombs.

i suppose this is splattered all over the front pages of groupthink

[click image]

But I have not had the vitality to look today and so just now found out about it....

Ex-U.S. President Clinton makes surprise visit to North Korea
09:48 | 04/08/2009

MOSCOW, August 4 (RIA Novosti) - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived on Tuesday in Pyongyang on a visit that could secure the release of two American journalists jailed in North Korea, the Yonhap news agency said.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing the border from China in March while working on a story for San Francisco-based Current TV about refugees fleeing the impoverished communist nation.

"Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, and his party arrived here Tuesday by air," Yonhap quoted the official Korean Central News Agency as saying.

The report said Clinton, who was president from 1993 to 2001, was greeted at the airport by Yang Hyong-sop, vice president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Kye-gwan, the North's deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear envoy.

Some analysts have expressed hope that Clinton's visit could also convince the reclusive regime to return to multilateral talks on North Korea's controversial nuclear program.

Pyongyang quit the six-party talks, involving the two Koreas, Russia, China, Japan and the United States, and announced the restart of its nuclear weapons program after the UN Security Council condemned its April 5 long-range missile launch. The Security Council imposed tougher sanctions on the North after it conducted its second nuclear test in May.

North Korea said on July 27 it was ready for bilateral talks with the U.S., but made it clear that it would not rejoin the six-party nuclear talks, which it said sought only to "disarm and incapacitate" the nation.

Do you think that's wise to send Bubba to go save a couple damsels in distress?

big wet game of chicken impending

[click image]

I feel there were a lot of reasons the SCO brought in Afghanistan and Pakistan and India and Iran, but specifically excluded participation or monitoring from the U.S. Department of State. All these panicked people about what happens if they dump their dollar reserves is shaping up to be somewhat beside the point. I think they are interested in uniting the Asian continent as a bloc to back down our aggression there. I'm sure they're not into North Korea's nuclear nonsense, but I think also that they are all aware that we are doing everyone more harm than good, both financially and in the grand geopolitical chess game.

A snippet from a Jeremy Scahill interview sort of helps illustrate what I mean:

Let's step back and look at what we've seen happen over five months of the Obama administration when it comes to foreign policy.

We've seen a radical escalation of the war in Afghanistan. We've seen Obama continue to use a quarter-million U.S. contractors--50 percent of the force that's fighting the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. He's increasing the number of mercenaries in Afghanistan by 29 percent and approximately 23 percent in Iraq.

He's continuing the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and maintaining the monstrous U.S. embassy that was built, in part, on the basis of slave labor. He's continuing to dole out contracts to KBR, the single greatest corporate beneficiary of the war, despite the fact that its work has electrocuted [to death] U.S. soldiers.

He's pumping up the National Endowment for Democracy, the leading organ to promote U.S. neoliberal economic policy and interfere in the elections and democratic processes of countries where the outcome might not be favorable to U.S. interests. He's continuing to use the rhetoric of the war on drugs in Latin America.

Overall, he's implementing a U.S. foreign policy that in some ways--or, I think, in many ways--advances the interest of the American empire in a way the Republicans could only have dreamed of doing.

What people, I think, misunderstand about Barack Obama is that this is a man who is a brilliant supporter of empire--who has figured out a way to essentially trick a lot of people into believing they're supporting radical change, when in effect what they're doing is supporting a radical expansion of the U.S. empire.

I think that it's a bit disingenuous for people to act as though they were somehow hoodwinked by Barack Obama about this.

If people were playing close attention during the election--not just to the rhetoric of his canned speech that he gave repeatedly, and the commercials, and the perception of his supporters was that he somehow was this transformative figure in U.S. politics, but also to the documents being produced by the Obama campaign and the specific policies he outlined--you realized that Barack Obama was very much a part of the bipartisan war machine that has governed this country for many, many decades.

What we see with Obama's policies in Iraq, Afghanistan and the broader Arab and Muslim world, as well as his global economic policies, are a continuation of the most devastating and violent policies of the Bush administration--while placing a face on it that makes it easier to expand the iron fist of U.S. militarism and the hidden hand of the free market in a way that Republicans, I think, would have been unable to do at this point in history.

They've got to be darn certain they don't have to put up with our adventures in fuel monopoly anymore, not if they stick together, and I think they will... or at least I think they have every reason to.

SCO Joint Communiqué

Yekaterinburg Declaration

aaaahahahaha! take that! ya bastids!

[click image]

but enough of this squalor

Key nations agree on NKorea sanctions
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer, Wed Jun 10, 6:31 pm ET

UNITED NATIONS – Western powers reached agreement with North Korea's key allies Wednesday on a proposal that would impose tough new sanctions on the reclusive communist nation's weapons exports and financial dealings, and allow inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas.

The draft U.N. resolution, which must still be approved by the Security Council, is aimed at preventing North Korea from obtaining and exporting material and know-how to produce nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, and from getting the money to finance the program.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice presented the draft resolution to the 15-member council, calling it "a very strong, very credible" response to North Korea's second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of a Security Council resolution adopted after its first underground atomic blast in October 2006.

"This sanctions regime if passed by the Security Council will bite, and bite in a meaningful way," she said. "We think that the message that the council will send should it adopt this resolution is that North Korea's behavior is unacceptable, they must pay a price."

The draft comes even as North Korea appears increasingly belligerent about possible sanctions. On Monday, Pyongyang's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper reiterated that the country will consider any sanctions a declaration of war and will respond with "due corresponding self-defense measures," and on Tuesday the country said it would use nuclear weapons in a "merciless offensive" if provoked.

The provision most likely to anger the North Koreans calls on countries to inspect suspect cargo heading to or from North Korea on land, at airports and ports — and to stop ships carrying suspect material if the country whose flag the vessel is flying gives approval. If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities."

The draft does not, however, authorize the use of military force, a demand by North Korean allies, China and Russia, that was also in the 2006 resolution.

Agreement on the draft resolution came after two weeks of closed-door negotiations by ambassadors from the five permanent Security Council nations — the U.S., Britain and France, China and Russia — as well as the two countries most closely affected by the test, Japan and South Korea.

Turkey's U.N. Ambassador Baki Ilkin, president of the Security Council this month, said the nine countries that were not part of the negotiations will send the draft to their governments and will meet again after they hear back.

With the five veto-wielding permanent members already on board, quick council approval is expected, though probably with some changes to the text.

Past sanctions imposed by the U.N., the U.S. and other countries have had little effect in dissuading North Korea from pursuing its nuclear ambitions.

Japan's U.N. Ambassador Yukio Takasu said the international community has "a responsibility to make this sanctions regime very effective."

The draft would have the Security Council condemn "in the strongest terms" the May 25 nuclear test "in violation and flagrant disregard" of the 2006 sanctions resolution.

It would also demand a halt to any further nuclear tests or missile launches and reiterate the council's demand that the North abandon all nuclear weapons, return to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, allow U.N. nuclear inspections, and rejoin six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said Moscow shares "the frustration and the concern" of all council members over North Korea's defiance.

"We are clearly facing a situation which poses clear proliferation risks," he said. "We are doing it with a very heavy heart ... because having sanctions is not our choice. But some political message must be sent."

The 2006 resolution imposed an arms embargo on heavy weapons, a ban on material that could be used in missiles or weapons of mass destruction and a ban on luxury goods favored by North Korea's ruling elite. It also ordered an asset freeze and travel ban on companies and individuals involved in the country's nuclear and weapons programs.

The new draft calls on the 192 U.N. member states to implement these measures and asks the council committee monitoring sanctions to designate additional companies and individuals within 30 days that could face an asset freeze and travel ban.

It would also expand the arms embargo, banning North Korea from exporting all weapons — which Rice said would eliminate a significant source of revenue for the country — and banning the import of all arms except light weapons.

The 2006 resolution called on countries to ensure compliance with the sanctions "including through inspection of cargo" to and from North Korea.

Rice explained that the new draft resolution spells out "an unprecedented, detailed" series of steps in which nations "are expected to inspect suspected contraband cargo" on land and the high seas, and then seize and dispose of any contraband.

In a measure designed to promote compliance with inspections, the draft resolution requires all countries not to provide fuel or other supplies to North Korean vessels if there are reasonable grounds to suspect they are carrying prohibited weapons or other items.

Russia's Churkin said "the provisions on inspections are drafted in a way which emphasizes respect for international law."

As for financial measures, the draft calls on U.N. member states to prevent financial institutions or individuals from providing financial services, funds or resources that could contribute to North Korea's "nuclear-related, ballistic missile-related, or other weapons of mass destruction-related programs or activities." It says this can be done by freezing the funds or assets.

It also calls on countries and international financial and credit institutions not to authorize new grants, financial aid, or concessional loans to North Korea except for humanitarian, development, and denuclearization programs. And it calls on member states not to grant export credits, guarantees, or insurance to companies or citizens involved in trade with North Korea that could contribute to its banned weapons programs.

we could have used our moral authority right here

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... if we had any left.

half of them are barefoot, too

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saw this coming

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Suicide is painless.